Madison Wisconsin's Estate Planning Blog

Confused about the differences between a will and a trust?  If so, you are not alone. While it is always wise to contact experts like us, it is also important to understand the basics. Here is a quick and simple reference guide:

What a Revocable Living Trust Can Do – That a Will Cannot

• ●Avoid conservatorship and guardianship. A revocable living trust allows you to name your spouse, partner, child, or other trusted person to manage your money and property, that has been properly transferred to the trust, should you become unable to manage your own affairs. A will only becomes effective when you die, so a will is useless in avoiding conservatorship and guardianship proceedings during your life.
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Protecting your family is important, especially when you have minor children, and even more so now that we are living through a pandemic. With all of the unknowns of our current situation, you need some certainty. Having an up-to-date estate plan can be the first step toward providing that certainty in an uncertain world.

Many people view estate planning as limited to making arrangements for your death. However, it is equally important to plan for a time when you may still be alive but unable to care for yourself or your minor children.
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Tips for Divvying Up Personal Property

We collect stuff throughout our lives. This “stuff” is known as our personal property. Some items are valuable, like jewelry, baseball cards, and works of art. Other items are sentimental, like grandma’s tea set, old christmas ornaments, and photographs. Regardless of the value, it is important that these items be distributed the way you want when you die.
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Deeper Dive into Advance Healthcare Directives

When it comes to your healthcare, especially during these uncertain times, you need to ensure that two estate planning documents in particular are up to date. The first is your healthcare power of attorney. This document allows you to name a person to make medical decisions on your behalf or communicate your wishes in the event you are unable to. The second document your estate plan should include is an advance healthcare directive, sometimes referred to as a living will. (It’s important to note that in some states, these two documents are combined into a single document.
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In the hectic and sometimes dangerous world that we live in, it is an unfortunate fact of life that accidents happen and people get hurt. The U.S. legal system is designed so that those who suffer injury through the avoidable fault of others can seek compensation for those injuries. Sometimes injuries are so severe that the injured individual receives a significant sum of cash through a settlement or court judgement.

The bad news: When a deceased person’s estate (all of their money and property) has to go through probate (the court-supervised process of distributing a deceased person’s money and property), it can be subject to a variety of costs stemming from attorneys, executors, appraisers, accountants, courts, and state law. Depending on the probate's complexity, fees can run into tens of thousands of dollars.

The good news: Many of these probate costs can be reduced by avoiding probate. It’s really that simple.

Here are three simple ways to reduce or eliminate costs by avoiding probate:

1. Name a Beneficiary.
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